The Effective Disconnect (Music Composed for the Documentary "Vanishing of the Bees")

Kranky; 2010

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You know Brian McBride as one half of Stars of the Lid, the ambient outfit that for about 15 years has pretty much set the standard for immersive drone. He released a solo album five years ago that stayed mostly in similar territory to his band with a few stabs outside, but he's otherwise been pretty quiet musically while working on his doctorate and a parallel career as a debate coach. Perhaps due to the demands of writing and soundtrack, his second solo effort, The Effective Disconnect, takes small steps to further nudge the boundaries of his style outward.

One of the primary differences between this and McBride's last solo effort, When the Detail Lost Its Freedom, is textural. Detail had a very specific idea at its heart-- there was a sense that you could hear the air moving between you and every sound, and it gave the record a kind of rough, distant aura. The Effective Disconnect keeps some of the distance, but the sounds are much smoother, more distinct and direct. The rhythmic pulses of these pieces of music are also a lot more varied. "Girl Nap" features what sounds like horns calling out long, static drones in a rhythm similar to breathing, which is familiar in McBride's work, but the quicker rhythm of the electric piano that underpins the drones is new.

Other tracks build on that. "Bee Keepers vs. Warfare Chemicals" is more rapid than anything I've heard McBride do, with twinkling percussion and rapid chord changes in its opening half. It then shifts to a sparser second movement around deeper, oceanic drones that recall classic Stars of the Lid and closes with a melancholy piano figure. It's interesting to hear how much tension there is between McBride's tendency toward stasis and the need for a little movement to match the visual accompaniment. The biggest surprise is undoubtedly the fact that "Chamber Minuet" is somewhat described by its title-- rather than producing an extended, shifting drone, McBride uses the strings here to play active melody. It never coalesces into a real minuet or anything close to one, but to hear those strings finally escape the drone to move a little is almost cathartic.

I haven't seen the documentary that this album soundtracks, but it seems appropriately sad for a film about Colony Collapse Disorder, a confounding affliction that's destroying honey-bee populations around the world and poses a huge threat to food production. On its own, it is occasionally a little sugary, but on the whole, The Effective Disconnect is a satisfying album that should please fans of McBride's other work.